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81 " read omnivorously "
― Alan W. Watts , The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety
82 " It is in vain that doctors prolong life if we spend the extra time being anxious to live still longer. It is in vain that engineers devise faster and easier means of travel if the new sights that we see are merely sorted and understood in terms of old prejudices. It is in vain that we get the power of the atom if we are just to continue in the rut of blowing people up. "
83 " We suffer from the delusion that the entire universe is held in order by the categories of human thought, fearing that if we do not hold to them with the utmost tenacity, everything will vanish into chaos. We "
84 " Logic, intelligence, and reason are satisfied, but the heart goes hungry. "
85 " It seems that if I am afraid, then I am “stuck” with fear. But in fact I am chained to the fear only so long as I am trying to get away from it. On the other hand, when I do not try to get away I discover that there is nothing “stuck” or fixed about the reality of the moment. "
86 " Struggle as we may, “fixing” will never make sense out of change. The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. "
87 " Most of us believe in order to feel secure, in order to make our individual lives seem valuable and meaningful. "
88 " Time itself is a creation of the restless mind; space has been created by the same mind to give itself room to wander when in fact there is no space beyond a mental construct that, like all constructs, eventually turns into a prison. "
89 " For the animal to be happy it is enough that this moment be enjoyable. But man is hardly satisfied with this at all. He is much more concerned to have enjoyable memories and expectations — especially the latter. With these assured, he can put up with an extremely miserable present. Without this assurance, he can be extremely miserable in the midst of immediate physical pleasure. "
90 " We are seeing, then, that our experience is altogether momentary. From one point of view, each moment is so elusive and so brief that we cannot even think about it before it has gone. From another point of view, this moment is always here, since we know no other moment than the present moment. It is always dying, always becoming past more rapidly than imagination can conceive. Yet at the same time it is always being born, always new, emerging just as rapidly from that complete unknown which we call the future. Thinking about it almost makes you breathless. "
91 " Perhaps the most exasperating thing about “me,” about nature and the universe, is that it will never “stay put.” It is like a beautiful woman who will never be caught, and whose very flightiness is her charm. For the perishability and changefulness of the world is part and parcel of its liveliness and loveliness. "
92 " It is obvious that the only interesting people are interested people, and to be completely interested is to have forgotten about “I. "
93 " THE QUESTION “WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT IT?” IS only asked by those who do not understand the problem. If a problem can be solved at all, to understand it and to know what to do about it are the same thing. On the other hand, doing something about a problem which you do not understand is like trying to clear away darkness by thrusting it aside with your hands. When light is brought, the darkness vanishes at once. This applies particularly to the problem "
94 " … tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live. "
95 " Indeed, the power of words has gone to man’s head in more than one way. To define has come to mean almost the same thing as to understand. "
96 " We fall in love with people and possessions only to be tortured by anxiety for them. "
97 " There is no other reality than present reality, so that, even if one were to live for endless ages, to live for the future would be to miss the point everlastingly. "
98 " To "know" reality you cannot stand outside it and define it; you must enter into it, be it, and feel it. "
99 " Like words, memories never really succeed in “catching” reality. "
100 " To define means to fix, and, when you get down to it, real life isn’t fixed. "